Tigers' optimism high wrapping up Big West

STOCKTON - Pacific's final season in the Big West Conference is wrapping up with four spring sports holding their championships this weekend.

Jagdip Dhillon

STOCKTON - Pacific's final season in the Big West Conference is wrapping up with four spring sports holding their championships this weekend.

The men's and women's tennis teams begin play today in Indian Wells, and the women's water polo team opens play at noon Friday in Irvine as the No. 8 seed against top-seeded Hawaii. The men's golf team will tee off Sunday morning at the PGA West Mountain Course in La Quinta.

Coach Ryan Redondo's men's tennis team enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed behind UC Irvine and Cal Poly, but he's confident his group can win and earn a berth to the NCAA championships next month. The Tigers (14-8, 4-2 Big West) are led by Australian freshman Daniel Alameh (16-5 singles, 13-5 doubles) and Russian sophomore Denis Stolyarov (15-4 singles, 9-10 doubles). They face No. 6 UC Davis at 8 a.m. today.

"This is one of the best groups I've been with," said Redondo, who led the Tigers to the Big West final in 2011, his first season. "Everyone puts the team first and they understand they missed out at an opportunity to win the regular season title, but they can make up for it."

The women's tennis team faces a tougher road as the No. 8 seed. The Tigers play No. 9 Cal Poly at 11 a.m. with the winner facing top-seeded UC Irvine in the quarterfinals Friday. Bulgarian sophomore Gergana Boncheva (10-10 singles) and freshman Christiana Ferrari (9-11 singles) have been Pacific's top players.

The women's water polo team is facing a similar uphill climb in Irvine. The Tigers (16-13, 1-6) face Hawaii (18-9, 6-1), which is ranked seventh in the country. Coach James Graham said his team's 12-11 loss to the Wahine on April 6 gives his team hope heading into Friday.

"We've proven we can go out n compete with anyone in the country," said Graham, whose team lost all six conference matches by three goals or less. "We're the underdog, but it's a wide-open tournament."

The Tigers are led by sophomores Taylor Adair (52 goals, 18 assists) and Brydie Pye (50 goals, 36 assists). Adair said it took time to adjust to Graham's hands-on, tactical coaching style in his first season as the women's coach but that the team is much improved because of it.